The Way Back
by Siri02
Summary: Voldemort’s gone and a cold and warhardened Harry is starting his 7th year. This is a story about his journey back to who he once was – and everything in between. Possible slash. ON HIATUS.
1. The Owl and the Rant

The Way Back

Disclaimer: I do not own anything and anyone your recognize or think you recognize.

Summary: Voldemort's gone and a cold and war-hardened Harry is starting his 7th year. This is a story about his journey back to who he once was – and everything in between. Possible slash.

A/N: This chapter's a little short and slow but it's meant to give you a feel of what's going on with Harry. Oh! And this is my first fic, fyi. I'm real giddy and nervous about this after being an avid fanfic reader and reading so many good works out there! So, I decided to give it a go and try my hand at this! (Plus I thought it was weird me having an account only to review so I needed something to put there… smiles) Anyways, enjoy!

. . . . . . . . . 

**CHAPTER 1 – The Owl and The Rant**

Nothing.

That was exactly what was going on in Harry's mind while he was staring at an irregular brownish stain on the wall in his rather cramped room at Number 4, Privet Drive.

Absolutely, positively nothing.

At first glance, everything seemed normal enough not to elicit this… _nothingness_. Harry's only living relatives, the Dursley's, who were far from being the ideal family, were not particularly unbearable this summer. In fact, all they did was bar themselves from Harry right from the first day back from the Hogwarts Express by locking him in his room with his belongings. The only time he had contact with the World Outside his Room was for the daily toilet breaks, as well as other necessary bodily needs, and the 2 meals a day pushed through the cat flap in his door. Honestly, that was pretty good and thoughtful of the Dursleys and Harry did not mind it at all.

Harry's room seemed to be in order as well and was, for once, similar to the rest of the unnaturally clean house. Harry's trunk rested at the foot of his bed, unopened, and an empty and relatively clean bird cage rested on his desk; Hedwig, his beloved owl, was out hunting for the night. All in all, the room was neat and all the furniture was free of anything and everything, bar a rather large pile of unopened letters adjacent to the cage. It was the room of a house guest. Or it could also be the room of Harry Potter, once known as the Boy-Who-Lived and now known as the Young-Man-Who-Completed-the-Prophecy, among other despised and unwanted titles that he received after defeating Lord Voldemort once and for all in his sixth year.

Even so, everything was not even remotely "right" and all of the reasons circled around Voldemort. Especially for a seventeen year old man – for that was what he was, a man – who had been through what he had been. Naturally, his face was pale from lack of sun and he was as skinny as ever with his meager food rations and lack of movement. There were two main things that made the entire situation seem to be more than it let on.

First, most of his body was crisscrossed and riddled with scars from the Second War, except for the peculiar, lightning-shaped scar on his forehead that he got from Voldemort the night his parents died, on the last day of the First War. The second thing was that his eyes were those belonging to an old man who had seen several lifetimes worth of atrocities. They were still the famous avada kedavra green, but something – everything – was missing. There was no life in them. No happiness. It was just a neutral, blank gaze which told everything of what he had been through, and yet nothing. Then there were the times he seemed to be alive.

At those times, his eyes lost the blank stare. Instead, they took on a cold, piercing, distant look.

It was the same throughout the entire summer, and even on his birthday, though with interruptions from his state to one of curiosity and a slight lightening of his eyes to a moderately annoyed look from the owls sent by his wizarding friends. He didn't even reply to any of his letters. In fact, he didn't even read any of his mail, except the piece of parchment that came by way of a flash of phoenix fire that informed Harry of how he was to be picked up from Privet Drive the day before September first to pick up his school supplies. The only thing that succeeded in bringing Harry back from his self-induced stupor for more than five minutes, besides that, was Hedwig.

And that was just what happened.

Harry's eyes suddenly snapped towards the open window just in time to see a grayish form through the darkness glide into his room to land next to him on his bed. A small smile graced his lips, but didn't reach his eyes as he petted his beloved owl, his only companion for the summer.

"Hello, girl. Glad you're back." His eyes flicked to his wristwatch that he received from Hermione as a Christmas present the year before. "Just in time too. About two hours till dawn. I was about to think that you weren't going to make it!"

Hedwig hooted reassuringly and nipped his finger lovingly before flying to her perch.

Harry sighed heavily.

"I still can't believe Dumbledore repeatedly insisted that I come back here. Voldemort's gone! There's no need for any protection from my relatives." Harry sneered at the last part. "I'm legally of age. I could just up and leave this place for the Leaky Cauldron or the Weasleys or something. But no. Dumbledore has to be bloody impossible and post a bloody Order member – even though the Order disbanded after I offed Voldie – to make sure I stay!" Harry clenched his fists in anger from the memory.

"Even when Voldemort was still alive, I got to leave this hellhole! I even went to the Quidditch World Cup!" He smiled briefly before continuing. "Sometimes I just wish Voldemort was still here. I'd actually have _something_ to do and I'd probably with the Weasleys." Green eyes that were full of suppressed anger deadened again. His voice grew quiet. "No. Now, they probably never want to see me again. No one would want to see me again." His voice broke off and he swallowed a lump in his throat, his eyes showing nothing of the turmoil within. "No. Harry James Potter, the bloody Boy-Who-Lived and now the Man-Who-Offed-Voldie-For-Good is no one." His face brightened a smidge.

"At least I can't get anyone killed anymore…" Then his voice turned bitter and spat out. "No. Dumbledore took care of _that_."

Harry took a deep breath and continued to rant about the unfairness of it all again – then all of a sudden, he lapsed into a silent spell once more just as the sun rose to greet the start of a new day.

It was now the 31st of August. The day before term started.

. . . . . . . . . 

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review! Anything from monosyllabic reviews and questions to constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome! I need to know how to improve! Also, I need to know where to go on from this (I do have a tentative plan, but I still need more ideas and thoughts to fill in the 'in-between' gaps!). After all, you guys are my readers and I live to please you, mostly. 

Siri

05.25.06


	2. The Elusive Compartment

Disclaimer: I own the computer, the chair I'm sitting on, my cup of apple juice (along with the apple juice in it), the keyboard, the mouse, and the desk that all of the things are on (well, besides the chair). I _do not_ own any characters and situations and scenes that you recognize. That belongs to JKR and other affiliates.

Summary: Voldemort's gone and a cold and war-hardened Harry is starting his 7th year. This is a story about his journey back to who he once was – and everything in between. Possible slash.

A/N: Sorry for the wait people but here it goes! Hope you like it!

2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2

**The Way Back**

**CHAPTER 2 – The Elusive Compartment**

_BAANNNG! CRASSSHH!_

"You have got to be kidding me…" Harry muttered as he jumped and twirled around towards the rather loud 'welcome' he received as he walked through and between platforms 9 and 10 onto platform 9 and ¾ with Remus Lupin, his lone company for the last day and a half. His body relaxed from its tense state when he realized what the cause of the noise was through all the people milling about.

He completely missed the look of sadness that crossed Remus' face when he saw how paranoid his best friend's son had become. A smile crossed his face, in turn, when Harry's face split into a smile of a sort when the three culprits sauntered over to the pair, squeezing through the crowds.

"Harry—"

"My boy!"

"How are you on—"

"This fine day?" Two identical ginger-haired men dressed in lurid, matching, orange-and-green dragon robes greeted Harry, finishing each others' sentences. A slightly taller red-head with a smattering of freckles across his nose rolled his eyes.

"Hey Harry!" Harry raised up an eyebrow.

"I walked in here thinking about how this year was going to actually be _normal_ but instead, I get you two" Harry nodded at the twins, Fred and George Weasley. "-and my best friend trying to kill me." This time, he nodded towards the taller of the redheads. Fred and George (or should I say Gred and Forge) both gave loud gasps and covered their mouths with their hands dramatically in the patented Weasley Twin Fashion while Ron, the taller of the four, reddened a bit around his ears.

"Now why in the world—"

"Would we—"

"Do that?" Harry made to open his mouth but was cut off again, this time by both of the twins answering at the same time.

"You're our partner! Our brother! Our financer!" Ron decided to cut in right then with his usual tactlessness.

"I mean, they wouldn't stand a chance of killing you even if they actually tried! After sixteen years of trying to kill you, all V-Voldemort did was get himself killed in the—" Ron cut off, looking at the looks of Painful Death directed at him from his brothers and Lupin. "What?" Then Ron looked at Harry and he realized the consequences of saying what he did and his eyes widened in horror. Harry's face was now wiped free of emotions, his eyes hard and dark.

"Oh bloody hell! I'm sorry, Harry! I didn't mean to—" Harry gave a weak attempt at a reassuring smile and interrupted him.

"Don— Don't worry 'bout it Ron." However, Ron was still frantic with worry.

"I mean really, Harry. I didn't think! Are you sure? I mean—"

"Ron! Honestly! I'm fine." Harry opened his mouth to say more but he was interrupted once again by a large mass of bushy brown hair and a small squeal that emitted from the middle of the mass.

"Harry! Why didn't you write? I was worried sick!" Harry gave a tiny, distant, short-lived smile; even after his reassurances to Ron, he really wasn't OK. In his mind, flashes of the year before were flashing through his mind. "Harry?" Hermione inquired tentatively at the lack of response she received from her best friend. Harry shook himself out of his thoughts and gave a more genuine smile.

"Oh, hi Hermione." Hermione looked at Harry closely and turned to Ron, who was looking a bit red, the twins, who were looking in a murderous fashion at their inept and clueless brother, and Professor Lupin, who was looking remarkably like the twins though with a bit of guilt as well. Hermione's face brightened slightly as she figured out what had happened, but then darkened as she looked at Ron.

"Oh Harry. You know Ron—"

"I know, 'Mione. I— I'm going to go put my trunk up, k? Find a compartment as well…" Harry murmured softly, his blank eyes staring at the ground as he started to move. Remus moved to help him but Harry declined the offer. "No, that's OK Remus. I can do it." Harry forced a smile. "I mean, I've been doing it for years! I can certainly do it this one as well." As he walked off, his smile faded, replaced with his usual emotionless mask, a souvenir from the war.

"Well, bye Harry! Take care! I'll write!" Remus called out to Harry. Then he walked back through the barrier into Kings Cross Station. The twins decided it was time for them to part as well. They had only wanted to see how Harry was – and to pull that prank on their brother while testing out a new product of theirs from their shop Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

"Bye Harry! Bye Hermione. Bye Git." They said their goodbyes and whacked Ron in the head as they left through the barrier as well. This left Hermione, glaring at Ron, and Ron, looking sheepishly at the ground and rubbing his head with one hand.

"You. Utter. _PRAT_!" Hermione screeched at her best friend. Ron cringed.

"'Mione! I didn't realize! I forgot—" He started to plead with the girl but he stopped abruptly at her look of pure anger.

"You forgot? You _forgot_! How in the world can you call yourself a friend? You know how Harry was, and _still_ is, after— After what happened." With every word, her voice became softer in despair at her friend's state of mind and the fact that they were attracting attention. She sighed. "Ron. Just, for once, think about what comes out of your mouth. _Please_." Hermione pleaded, her hands clasped together. Ron nodded vigorously, eyes shining sincerely.

"I promise, 'Mione. I promise." Hermione looked at her love exasperatedly and sighed, taking his hand in hers.

"Come on then Ron. Lets go! We have to make sure Harry's _really_ all right then go to the Prefect meeting! I mean, _I_ have to go to the prefect meeting! I'm Head Girl!" She continued on that strain while advancing towards the train with Ron following her obediently by her side, a silly smile on his face.

o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o

After Harry put away his trunk, he boarded the train in search of a free compartment. Six compartments, 2 friendship offerings from an obsessed band of girls, 1 death threat from a Theodore Nott, 1 attempted kiss from a crazed girl, 1 attempted counseling session, 4 students cowering 'under his might', and 1 minute of hiding from an even more obsessed Colin Creevey later, Harry resolved to stay in the next compartment he opened no matter what.

He opened a compartment that seemed empty when he looked through the frosted glass of the door and he sat down on the seat next to the window, heaving a great sigh.

"That was about time!" He muttered. Then he looked up, emerald meeting silver. "Oh _shit_!"

o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o

'It's another year at this dratted school.' Draco thought dully. 'Probably nothing's going to change. It's just going to be another year here with Potter and I rivals and not to mention the fact that half of my house is going to _kill me_ for being a so-called traitor!' Draco snorted. 'But the most important thing was Po—"

Draco was pulled from his thoughts as the compartment door opened. He opened his mouth to welcome Blaise Zabini, for they had arranged to meet on the train, but his mouth abruptly shut when a mop of messy dark hair appeared before him and the body accompanying the mop plopped itself opposite from himself. Draco raised an eyebrow and sat back comfortably with his hands behind his head, waiting for the inevitable moment in which his arch nemesis realized just exactly who his company consisted of. He was not disappointed.

"That was about time." Draco heard Potter say. Then Potter's face came up, silver meeting emerald and all hell broke loose. "Oh _shit_!" Potter's eyes were wide and for once hey were actually showing a different emotion (or lack of emotion) than remorse or bitterness. This time, they were wide with surprise and panic. He jumped up and made to open the door until a pale hand rested on his, stopping him effectively.

"Malfoy?" He asked quietly, his eyes still trained on Draco's hand that still rested on his.

"Potter, sit down. I think it's high time we spoke." Draco said as an explanation, retracting his hand. At Potter's raised eyebrow, he added "Civilly." Potter nodded almost imperceptibly and slowly made his way to his former seat.

Draco sighed, mentally preparing himself for the rather interesting conversation that would be rather long overdue.

o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o

"Where the _bloody hell_ is he!" Ron practically shouted to Hermione, rushing through the isle, looking for Harry. Hermione gave Ron a dirty look for his choice of words.

"He's somewhere on this train Ron."

"I know, but why does it have to take so long? I mean bloody—" Ron glanced at Hermione. "I mean honestly!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"We've only just started Ron! We'll find him soon enough! OH! Stop!" Hermione halted in front of a compartment door and put her ear to the door. She could hear Harry's voice as well as one other. A familiar sounding drawl.

"Herm? What're you doing?"

"Ssh! I think Harry's in here. I can hear his voice." Ron rolled his eyes.

"Brilliant! Now, let's go on in!" Ron walked past Hermione and opened to the door.

"Ronald! Don—" But it was too late.

"Harry! What the bloody hell are you doing in here with _them_!" The way he said the word 'them' left no doubt as to who was in the compartment other than the Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy, and possibly one of his other Slytherin cronies. Hermione took a deep breath.

She had a feeling they were going to be late to the Prefect meeting and she had to try to make the time between as painless as possible.

2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2—2

**A/N**: C'mon people, I _know_ you guys want to review! thinks OK, maybe not but at least I'm not ordering you guys to review. But really, just ONE word? Lol… well, this time, I _really_ have to know what you guys think because that decides for me whether or not I want to continue this.

I have another fic stuck in my head that I might start soon and if this one isn't eliciting a fairly good response (I mean, I'm not asking for an essay or anything.) I might put this on hold while I work on the other one. And I'll come back to this one when I'm stuck on the other one or something. shrug It's actually up to you guys.

You know that lavenderish button down there is intriguing… Go on! ;)

Siri

05.31.06


	3. AN Updated!

Hello! Hey! Greetings! Hei! Olá! Hallo! Bonjour! 嗨!

Wasn't that educational!

-ahem- Anyways, this is just an Author Note and I've seen so many authors do this (and also I don't feel like adding this to the end of one of my former two chapters since no one would probably notice…) so I have decided to too! It's mainly just to update you guys on this fic… or you could say _not _update you on the fic. (Sorry!)

OK, well, basically, I've decided to put this on hold since I haven't had much feedback. However, I have started a new fic with my first beta (yay!) named Asuri that was _originally_ supposed to be an revised/edited version of TWB but it's now starting to turn into something... more planned out and different. I'm actually quite excited about it but it'll be a while until I post. I'm planning on punching out a couple of chapters and getting everything settled (plot-wise and such) before I post. Therefore, my readers won't have much of a wait between updates and I won't feel all rushed and such!

I mean, I know how it feels to wait for a chapter update that you really, _really_, **really** want to read. I know my writing isn't as good as most (more like all) of the fics on my Favorite's List but… hey! I can dream right? –wink-

And this is Siri signing out for a while!

Thanks a bunch of Grapes for those who reviewed and those who read!

-bows and walks out of the room with a wave-

06.17.06

()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()

**EDIT**: I have re-read through this and what I had and I'm contemplating continuing this. I feel bad just leaving my fic out there to rot since I know _I_ hate it when authors starts a fic and discontinue it when they're barely anywhere. The updates may be a little slow since I just started uni but I _will_ update.

Just remember to help me out every once in a while by reviewing and giving me pointers/suggestions/comments! It'll keep me going. 

Siri

08.31.06


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